>>> from washington, the mclaughlin group, the american original. for over three decades, the gro brought to you in part by american petroleum institute. >>> on new years day, and during the first week of january, the u.s. economy will be hit by $600 billion of automatic tax increases. and automatic spending cuts. the phenomenon known as the fiscal cliff. if that happens, it will trigger a recession, or worse. so, president obama is taking action and insisting that republicans agree to increase the existing marginal tax rates on the wealthiest top 2% of u.s. taxpayers. and of course, there is more to the deal. but there will be no negotiations on that big part of the deal unless that tax on the wealthiest 2% is negotiated now. the president could not be more emphatic in stressing the indispensable element of surmounting the cliff is that super-rich revenue. >> we're not insisting on rates just out of spite. or out of any kind of partisan bickering. but rather because we need to raise a certain amount of revenue. >> okay. here is john boehner, the republican house speaker. >> if yo

you see in a ski cap is a danger -- snow a distinguished black journalist in washington, a columnist who heard a fracas outside his front door, thought to have guns in their home. john, half the men in america, half the in two. when in doubt, punt. >> the u.s. chamber of commerce represents the interests of more than 3 million businesses. small shops to large corporations. the 100-year-old chamber has offices and staff in every major city girdling the globe. now, regarding the fiscal cliff gridlock, what is the judgment of the chamber? answer. don't do anything now. punt. instead of lawmakers racing in the 14 days left of their lame duck session with christmas day in the middle of it, to implement spending cuts and tax hikes, the chamber says congress and the president should simply and temporarily extend the bush tax cuts across the board. punting will leave current tax policy and fiscal outlays unchanged. thereby wreaking no havoc on the economy and no gun at your head settlement. the newly elected congress comes in january, so any detante will have more legitimacy if it originates

that they're fighting very hard. but i think reasonableness may descend on washington and it is something that we should all applaud. >> ryan grim, do you think we will have reasonable connection on this? >> i don't think so. there was another meeting on thursday, and the white house made it very clear that they're not giving much. the white house feels very burned by the 2011 debt ceiling negotiations. they feel like they have the leverage. and they're leaving it up to boehner to capitulate. >> do you think that president obama feels that he has unilateral control of the purse? >> no, but they think that they have enough leverage that they can force republicans to put the debt ceiling into any package that they eventually come up with. and if they don't, he feels like there is some other way that he can force them to deal with this issue. >> if this is a power of the purse issue and it falls on congress, not on the president, the president would be overstepping his power. because he -- does he want to have unilateral control defacto of the purse? >> no, i don't think i wants unilateral c

. they're good kids at home. >> in washington, there were calls for more funding and more attention to mental health after newtown. but those are issues largely managed by the state. from denver, rocky mountain pbs reports now on colorado governor john hickenlooper's plan to increase spending for mental health. >> at the colorado capital in denver tuesday, governor john hickenlooper announced an $18.5 million package of improvements to the state's mental health system including a boost for statewide crisis intervention. >> after the shootings in aurora, we said we wanted to allow the victims and their families, the wounded victims to process what had happened to them and the families to grieve with some level of peace, the loss of their family members and their closest friends. but we began looking at what things could we do. we're lucky to have many high-skilled providers and a strong infrastructure already in place. but we know that access to services at present is insufficient. and that oftentimes the delivery of those services is fragments. we're very well aware of it. resources

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